From what the ticket rumble is, that many people gamed the system to increase their odds of getting tickets, there is going to be a huge rush of people who got multiple ticket awards and realize that they have to get rid of some, fast! I also anticipate a much bigger number than expected to end up in the last "open" purchase, as many people fail to close on the tickets they were awarded. Pretty interesting to watch what will happen, but I'm more interested in what the impact will be on the community. Supply, meet demand, meet temporary shortage followed by over-supply. If you look at the last few years, January/February ticket demand is around 20,000, followed by another 30,000 tickets over the next 8 or 9 months. I suspect that in March, there will be alot of face value tickets available, then tightening up, then dropping quite a bit closer to the event.

We put in for exactly the number of tickets we need--two. One for me and one for my partner. If we don't get picked in the lotto, we have decided not to go. I wouldn't shop at a store or go to any other event that made buying tickets such a convoluted process, I'm not making an exception for this one.

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

jkisha wrote:We put in for exactly the number of tickets we need--two. One for me and one for my partner. If we don't get picked in the lotto, we have decided not to go. I wouldn't shop at a store or go to any other event that made buying tickets such a convoluted process, I'm not making an exception for this one.

What about the direct sale in a few months? That isn't convoluted. If I don't get a ticket in this round, I'll go for that.

The camp with a differenceNever mind the weatherWhen you camp with Plug & PlyYour holiday's forever

jkisha wrote:We put in for exactly the number of tickets we need--two. One for me and one for my partner. If we don't get picked in the lotto, we have decided not to go. I wouldn't shop at a store or go to any other event that made buying tickets such a convoluted process, I'm not making an exception for this one.

You give a slight appearance of turning into a crabby old codger! Just saying.

OK, I've got to come clean on the planning thing: The first year I went to Burning Man, I didn't think of going to this thing called Burning Man until two days before the festival opened. I bought a ticket off of craigslist the next day at the lowest tier - $152. I filled up the propane in my motorhome, bought seven 18-packs of beer, bought about $100 worth of food, and I was off. My clutch went out en route, and I got towed from about 20 miles south of Gerlach, through the stop and go traffic, to our camp at 4:15 and Istanbul for less than what this year's ticket will probably cost. The cop that got the tow for me said that I could get towed to the playa. I asked him if there was an auto parts store there. He said no, but I can do the Burning Man thing there and figure it out later. I said, "Cool." The tow-truck driver was a hoot. At the time, I was bumming out big time about how much the tow was going to cost, but I didn't realize that being physically and mentally able to Burning Man is a blessing in itself. There are worse situations in which to find yourself I'm sure. Out of about 24 people in our camp, not one single person in our camp knew anybody else before we met up on the playa. Well, Connie and Jim did... I lucked out and got cell service en route and asked a friend to pick up a clutch kit. I put in the clutch while my camp mates were partying. That was the very few somewhat sober hours I experienced on the playa that burn. I drove to a hotel in Reno and then on home without incident. If you're prepared at all for camping, and you're somewhat local, you don't need a bunch of time to plan except maybe to decide if you'll buy Coors, Tecate, or PBR. I played it safe and bought a little of each - Ergo, I'm finding out that I've been whining a bit lately.

Last edited by CornMan on Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:46 pm, edited 6 times in total.

The camp with a differenceNever mind the weatherWhen you camp with Plug & PlyYour holiday's forever

Sail Man wrote:gonna be curious to see how the BORG handles ticket sales next year. Stay with this new and improved model or try some other dumb-fuckery method.

Actually it worked pretty well. Scalpers are screwed, unless someone panicked and bought early (which could cause them to rethink trying next year), burners that overbought/gamed the system might think again about doing it again, and people who bought on a whim or were not sure they could go may rethink it until their plans are more settled.

Most of the people posting aren't scalpers or hoarders. I'm even looking at a ticket surplus in our own camp, not because anybody was holding out in hopes of making a profit or anything, but because work things changed and people who had been planning to go for months are no longer able to.

I think that last year's sellout on July 26 caught many, many people by surprise. Very few of us had really considered that it could happen, let alone knew it was inevitable. As a result, several thousand people who had been doing the work and had the time off suddenly got caught without a ticket. This year, everyone's known that tickets were in short supply from the very start. Those who were determined to go have had 7 months to figure something out, and those who weren't have had time to make their peace with the idea, or just never got involved in making/building/bringing things.